The World Remade

January 2, 2017
Meyer (The Borgias) marks the centenary of America’s entry into WWI with a volume to complement his 2006 book on WWI, A World Undone, in which he largely left the U.S. out of the picture. Here, with great skill and fidelity to fact, Meyer fills that gap to relate the complex tale of a nation venturing back into world affairs after a century of comparative isolation. Necessarily, European events intrude, from the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand through the long slog of battlefield terror. But Meyer keeps his eye resolutely on American affairs to depict a nation struggling to create a military force, deal with internal opposition, and go to Europe’s aid. Like so many writers of popular history, Meyer tells the story with brio. Characters come alive and the past seems near. But as with so many volumes of popular history, the tale is all there is; neither interpretation nor grand idea intrudes. Meyer adds little to the existing record, opting to rely on earlier historians and meld their work “into a single narrative of what is now known.” Fortunately, Meyer succeeds brilliantly with his basic narrative approach, and any reader who wants to learn about American participation in the war will benefit from this book.

December 15, 2016
A sturdy one-volume study of America's role in World War I. As a companion to historian Meyer's A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (2006), which focused on Europe, this work focuses exclusively on America's involvement in World War I, from its embrace of neutrality to "the law of selfishness" in plunging the U.S. into Europe's conflagration in 1917. The author debunks many myths about America's valiant intentions in joining the war, especially regarding President Woodrow Wilson's sense of destiny on the world stage, and he closely examines why Wilson acquiesced to joining the fight. Indeed, Meyer devotes an entire chapter to "Why," including the political pressure from the outrage of the Zimmermann Telegram and the sinking of the Lusitania by German torpedoes. Yet, wonders the author, was Britain "so deeply in debt to the United States that its defeat would have plunged the nation into depression"? Or was it true that if the U.S. did not join the effort, Wilson, "as president, would be left with no major part to play in the postwar settlement"? Meyer gives a good sense of America's future at that negotiating table and Wilson's celebrated role at Versailles as the leader of the free world. The author also looks at America's path in arriving at that fraught moment--manipulated by the propaganda effort of the British communications campaign, vilifying the Germans, and the struggle to raise conscription and maintain morale at home. In alternate chapters, Meyer chronicles narrative back stories, such as the role of Col. Edward House in influencing the president and that of "Fighting Bob" La Follette, the congressman from Wisconsin who passionately argued that America had no quarrel with the German people and that Wilson needed to be held accountable. Meyer also examines the unprecedented restrictions on censorship called for by the Wilson administration, and, as an appendix, he includes Wilson's "Program for Peace" in its entirety. A refreshing look at this still-much-debated world debacle.

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December 1, 2016

In this companion volume to Meyer's (Harvard Univ. Niemann Fellow) The World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918, the author focuses on domestic policy and the presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1913-21), a complex personality who despised opposition and shifted between isolationism and interventionism. Meyer portrays the politician harshly in discussions of his subservience to British influence and his later enthusiasm for startling, if popular, suspensions of civil liberties. Wilson is shown to be unprepared to deal with societal changes such as shifting class and economic structures, the Progressive movement, war fever, and significant increases in government spending. His failed attempt to join America to the League of Nations was the last act in an increasingly strained presidency. The end of World War I led to differences between the United States and European victors, and the legacies of the war, Meyer argues, include governmental lying, assaults on the Bill of Rights, and the use of national emergency to attack and imprison citizens. VERDICT This lengthy revisionist history will fit well with American history and governmental studies departments in both public and academic libraries.--Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2017
In his widely praised previous work, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 19141918 (2006) journalist and author Meyer focused primarily on Europe's role in the conflict, giving limited attention to America's participation. He describes this new volume as a complement to its predecessor, and it is a massive and ambitious effort that strives to cover and explain a very broad range of aspects, including our entry and participation in the war, the failure of the peace, and the changes the war brought to our political and social fabric. Meyer offers wonderful insights into many of the key players in this arresting saga, including William Jennings Bryan, presidential advisor and diplomat Edward House, and General John Black Jack Pershing. Towering above them all, however, is the character of President Woodrow Wilson, and Meyer's portrait of him is scathingly negative. He views Wilson as rigid, self-righteous, and a sham progressive whose claims of neutrality were contradicted by his overt hostility towards Germany and his willingness to accept British propaganda claims about German atrocities. According to Meyer, that same rigidity and refusal to compromise helped doom the subsequent peace settlement at Versailles. This is a provocative and sometimes harshly judgmental history, but one that should be read to understand our emergence as a global power.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)